Finally...

It has begun.

Sitting in my closet is a day old sourdough starter.

For the past two months, I have been dreaming about bread. Making it, baking it, eating it. But I have been in a funk. Things have been keeping me from making bread. Excuses, procrastination, etc., etc. In other words, a total lack of motivation.

So last night, I decided that enough was enough. I took out the recipe for my starter, mixed in all the ingredients and laid the bowl in my closet to sit and ferment for the next couple of days.

Starter takes about a week to ferment. You add water to flour, cover with plastic wrap and leave it to ferment for a couple days. You then take out half of the starter, add fresh flour and water (this is called feeding) and leave it for another couple of days. When the starter smells like fresh paint, it's ready.

That's right. Fresh paint.

But once it's made, it keeps forever. You just have to feed the starte every couple of days and it will keep. You can keep it in the fridge (which slows down the fermentation process) or keep it out on the counter in a small sealed container.As the starter ages, it will develop in flavour and character. It is a living thing that grows, ages, develops. I have met people who have starters that were given to them by their mothers who received it from their mothers. My friend Micheal told me his mother had a starter and that she named it "Mum". "Go get the Mum," she would say.

It took me five minutes to make my starter.

I had been procrastinating about five minutes.

In 6 days, it will be ready and I will be baking my first sourdough bread.

Enough procrastination. It's time to make something worthwhile!